Fraudster siphons off Rs 100 cr from bank account of Port Trust

Chennai

“After we secured one of the suspects, a resident of Thousand Lights, we were told that the case has been handed over to the CBI as the money involved in the case was huge,” said the official, who initially investigated the fraud that took place in April.

Police said the money lost by the Port Trust will be nearly Rs 100 crore. The investigator believes that it is possible that bank officials of the particular branch could have helped the fraudster in siphoning off the money. After the gang withdrew nearly Rs 50 crore, bank noticed malpractice and froze the account. “Though the Port Trust lost Rs 100 crore, Rs 50 crore is now ‘safe’ in the account of the scamster,” police said.

When contacted, Port Trust chairman P Raveendran refused to talk about the fraud claiming it was not the right time to disclose anything.

The accused identified by the police, a resident of Thousand Lights, was part of the gang that brokered the bulk deposit account. The suspect used to transport money, packed in gunny bags, in a car.

As the amount involved in the case was nearly Rs 100 crore, the city police handed over the case to CBI, which is yet to start the probe.

Banking sources said that in a similar fashion, Canara Bank in Bengaluru too had witnessed a fraud to the tune Rs 47 crore in which money was transferred from a current account to various ‘beneficiaries’ including those in Chennai. The money was deposited by a government agency, which was later siphoned off by a fraudster using fake documents.

In both the cases, the fraudster was aware of the bulk deposit made by government agencies and had used fake credentials of the person from the government departments to walk away with crores of rupees, sources said.